Capital Region News

Ex-Con Spotted in Backyard

An ex-con was found hiding in a garage with some stolen frozen food and a bottle of booze near a spot he had been nabbed six years ago, according to the East Greenbush Police Department.

They say that it was “an alert resident (who) saved some of his neighbors certain grief Monday afternoon.”

Officer Donald Deitz was flagged down on New York Avenue for a report of a suspicious person seen in a fenced-in backyard and then a garage. Police say they found James Provost, 60, hiding behind some equipment in the garage holding frozen food he had taken from a freezer and some liquor stolen from another nearby residence on Sherwood Avenue, police said. At both spots, Provost found unlocked doors, investigators said.

Provost had been released last Friday from Franklin Correctional Facility at Malone where he had served time for an early-morning break-in on Sherwood Avenue nearly six years ago to the day, police said. In that case, the homeowner awoke and fought with Provost on the second floor while other family members awoke and called 911.

Provost was arraigned by East Greenbush Town Justice Kevin Engle on charges of Burglary (2nd & 3rd Degrees) and Larceny. He was sent to the Rensselaer County Jail and is due back in court Nov. 14.